With so many variations in shape and size of pipes, I was wondering what you guys like to use as a pipe rest? I like to smoke when I talk on the radio or type on the computer so a lot of times I need both hands and there are times when I want the pipe to cool for a little bit so clenching isn't the best thing. I think this is why I love my Sumerler Poker for when I'm on the air. No issues putting that one down.

I thought about filling a pipe pouch full of stones or, even better, ball bearings to make a kind of pipe bean bag chair. We're all a creative bunch so lets brainstorm and talk about things already tried.

Excellent idea Smitty, I also had this problem,Now I use a pipe pouch filled with beach sand as this works for any of my pipesI have several pipe rests but very few work for the majority of my pipes.Necessity is the mother of inventionRegards Dave

Dave

“A pipe is to the troubled soul what caresses of a mother are for her suffering child.”-Indian Proverb

I got hooked on these little armchair pipe holders, which are from the 50's or the 60's and are made of a molded sawdust composite called Syroco.I have a bunch of them, including a couple of the much sought after two-place love seats.

Syroco seems to have been used a lot for making fake Black Forest pieces. Pipe-wise you also see it formed into pipe holders that look like slippers, dogs, etc., ashtray holders with acorns and oak leaves, box humidors with pheasants on the side.

Keyword search Syroco on eBay if curious.

These are the original eBay sellers' pictures.

It pays to keep your eyes peeled for things that aren't pipe holders but could be used as pipe holders. I have a frosted glass votive candle holder that looks like a stylized calla lily that holds one pipe nicely. No pic.

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Last edited by HowlinWolf on Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:51 pm, edited 4 times in total.

This post is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling of contents may have occurred during transmission.

Find a straight piece of dried tree branch about 2” in diameter. I used maple because it's everywhere, and I left the bark on mine.Cut to about a 10” length; sand the ends smooth. Cut off the bottom 1/3 of the branch along its length. In other words, you’re giving a round branch a D-shaped cross section / a flat bottom so it will lie flat on a table. After that, if you have a belt sander it’s time to use it. I don’t.

Now you need to make the bell-shaped scoop for the bowl to fit into. An inch or so from one end of the branch, cut across the shoulder of the branch, simultaneously parallel to both the end of the branch and the flat bottom. The finer-toothed saw the better. I happened to have an Xacto razor saw intended for plastic; it was perfect. Cut into the branch about the same depth you’ve seen on factory pipe stands; about 3/8” or so I guess.

Start digging out the scoop with the drum sander bit on the Dremel MotoTool. Going slowly and checking your progress frequently by test-fitting the pipe bowl into the scoop is the best idea you’ve had all day. When you’re satisfied, it’s time to make the stem support.

The stem support is the straightest twig you can find about the diameter of a pencil, about a foot long with a Y-fork in it. Cut the 2 sides of the fork to the length that looks right to you to keep the stem from flopping off the support.

Here comes the tricky part: eyeball how high up your “slingshot” needs to be and how far back from the scoop it needs to beto have the pipe sit sensibly in the frame. >>Cut the handle of the slingshot about 2” longer than that.<<

Find the spot where the Y-support is going to go into the base. Mark it with a pencil. Drill into the base with the right size drill bit – but not all the way through. Dry fit everything, figure out how much shorter your slingshot handle needs to be, cut it to length, dry fit again.

When everything’s OK, glue the slingshot to the base with carpenter’s glue, Elmer’s glue, etc. Don’t put too much glue in the hole or there will be a globcollar (hi KevLa) of glue showing. Just enough glue to keep the thing from falling apart.

5 will get you 10 that the finished stand is tipsywobbly. Glue tiny shims of the thin broken tree bark that is by now all over the place, index card stock, or whatever, to the bottom where needed.

With only hand tools other than the Dremel, the build takes about 2 hours.Typing a description of the build takes about a half-hour.

If what you mean is you'd like me to post a pic of the stand, the best I can do is promise to think about it.Taking the pic is of course EZ butit's a real ordeal for me to dump the pix from my camera into the computer and get them organized. I look forward to about as much as having a tooth filled. I have a couple hundred pix piled up in the camera so far, because of this.

This post is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling of contents may have occurred during transmission.

If what you mean is you'd like me to post a pic of the stand, the best I can do is promise to think about it.

Yes. That's what I meant.

HowlinWolf wrote:Taking the pic is of course EZ butit's a real ordeal for me to dump the pix from my camera into the computer and get them organized. I look forward to about as much as having a tooth filled. I have a couple hundred pix piled up in the camera so far, because of this.